1. Technical Field
The invention relates to an arrangement for supplying production and packaging machines with expendable material or packaging material, in particular as wound material websxe2x80x94reelsxe2x80x94which are supplied on pallets and distributed (individually) to the production and packaging machines.
2. Prior Art
The task of supplying high-performance machines in the cigarette industry poses a particular problem. The problem concerns feeding material to machines for producing and packaging cigarettes or similar products. The material which is used predominantly is web-like material which is available in wound form, namely as a reel.
Known arrangements operate with industrial trucks, that is to say with transporting vehicles which travel along the floor of a production plant and deliver reels arranged on pallets to the individual packaging machines. However, arrangements for transporting reels from a central material store to the individual use locations by way of an overhead conveyor which is set up for automatic operation are also already known.
The object of the invention is to propose a high-performance arrangement for supplying packaging and production machines, in particular with reels, which is particularly cost-effective to construct and operate.
In order to achieve this object, the arrangement according to the invention is characterized by the following features:
a) a machine or a unit containing a plurality of machines, in particular comprising two lines for producing and packaging cigarettes, is assigned an adjacent intermediate store for packaging material or reels,
b) located in the intermediate store is at least one pallet for (each type of) (web-like) material processed in the machine or machines,
c) pallets with in each case one type of reel can be fed to the intermediate store by a pallet conveyor,
d) individual reels can be transported, by a separate reel conveyor, from the intermediate store to one of the machines which is to be supplied.
An essential basic idea of the invention is that, for different transporting tasks within a production and packaging installation, use is made of different transporting systems which are custom-made for the respective task. Within the context of the invention, arranged in the region of the (intermediate) store for the reels is a conveyor of which the operating region is restricted to the material store but which is set up for automatic operation and has, in particular, a lifting head for the reels which, with the aid of suitable sensors, automatically selectsxe2x80x94with reference to identification featuresxe2x80x94the reel which is to be transported further, automatically grips the reel and makes it available for being received by the reel conveyor. This conveyor is, in particular, a portal robot. The reel conveyor, in contrast, is set up as a xe2x80x9cstraightforward conveyorxe2x80x9d, namely as an overhead conveyor with a straightforward traveling mechanism and lifting mechanism. This reel conveyor is provided with a lifting head which can simply be moved up and down. For satisfactory functioning of the same, the reels are deposited by the portal robot on a receiving means in each case in the region of the material store, the receiving means assuming a precise position relative to the movement path of the reel conveyor. Also provided in the region of the material-consuming machine is a set-down position, which is likewise located precisely in the movement region of the reel conveyor.
The configuration of the (intermediate) store with pallets for reels of any type which is to be processed and with a special pallet conveyor, namely pallet carriage, constitutes a further special feature. The intermediate store has a transfer station, in the region of which the reel conveyor and a conveyor for transporting the pallets up and awayxe2x80x94pallet conveyorxe2x80x94run.
Further features of the invention relate to the configuration of the intermediate store and the conveyors for reels or pallets.
Further details of the invention are explained more specifically hereinbelow with reference to an exemplary embodiment of an installation for producing and packaging cigarettes.